


Day 7: Head Injury

by GemmaRose



Series: VLD Whump Week [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Concussions, Gen, Head Injury, Headaches & Migraines, Nausea, Physics, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 07:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11846625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: There's a reason you're supposed to wear your seatbelt.





	Day 7: Head Injury

“We need to shake their canon loose.” Shiro said, materialising Black’s jaw blade to slice through a squadron of fighters. “Pidge, what’s the status of their shield?”

“The energy drain is working. Half a dobosh and it’ll be down entirely.”

“Good work.” Shiro said, his eyes flicking over the battlefield. “Lance, as soon as that shield goes down you get in there and gouge around the base of the cannon.” he ordered, pulling Black back from the fight a bit and using the tail laser to whack off a few fighters. “Hunk, on me. Keith, keep the fighters off our tail.”

“What are we doing?” Hunk asked nervously.

“We’re snapping the cannon off.” Shiro said firmly, flying back away from the battle. The Yellow Lion fell in next to him, and when he pulled Black around to face the battleship again Hunk kept close to his side. “Lance, how’s the cannon looking?” he asked, eyes flicking over the clear span of space between them and the ship.

“As broken as it’s getting.” he replied, Blue pulling back and joining Red in skirmishing with the fighters.

“Alright.” Shiro said, squaring his jaw and gripping Black’s controls tighter. “Hunk, _ramming speed_.” he pushed Black forwards, gaining speed with Yellow at his side, and the ship grew larger and larger on the viewscreen.

“Oh shit!” Pidge yelped, and Shiro’s head jerked to look at the part of the ship where the Green Paladin was stealing information and redirecting energy from the cannon’s shields. “Guys, ge-”

“Pidge!” Shiro yelled as the comms cut out, a massive bubble of purple energy exploding out from the center of the ship. It washed over Black, and Shiro yelped as purple lightning crackled across the console and over his suit, lights dying in its wake. Gravity shifted abruptly, slamming him back into his seat, and he struggled to draw a breath in the crushing darkness. Literally crushing, he wasn’t sure how fast Black was going but it was evidently fast enough to exert several Gs of force on him.

“Black.” he gasped, gripping the controls so tight his fingers ached. “Please-” as abruptly as he’d been pushed into his seat, Shiro was thrown free of it. The hard edge of the dashboard bit into his hips, and that pain had barely registered before he was seeing stars, then nothing.

\---

“Āaa.” Shiro groaned, blinking at the darkness. He was... floating? He was floating. His stomach didn’t particularly agree with that, but he just grimaced and tried to figure out which way he was pointing by the faint light emanating from- he looked down, and frowned. “The fuck am I wearing?” he muttered. Wherever he was, it was pitch black and near silent, only his heartbeat, his breaths, a distant, tinny ringing, and- wind?

A strange sound like howling wind echoed in his head, as if marshaling his scattered thoughts into some semblance of order, and Shiro yelped as he was dropped to the floor. The back of his shoulders hit first, followed by his head, and he groaned as fresh pain blossomed across his skull. The visor of his helmet lit up with a HUD, alien symbols scrolling in front of his face, and he shut his eyes against the stabbing light.

The ringing grew louder as static crashed into his ears, and he pressed his hands to his helmet. The wind howled in his head again, sounding almost like words, and he removed his hands from his head to pull himself up and lean on the dashboard as the room swayed around him. His right hand moved almost without conscious thought, palm landing on a button labelled with alien symbols, and he threw it up to shield his eyes as a wide, curved viewscreen lit up. “Too bright.” he gasped, and suddenly everything grew dim.

The wind from before curled around the inside of his throbbing head, its murmur indistinct and comforting, and he stumbled backwards until the backs of his knees hit a chair. He fell into the seat, and his hands automatically went to a pair of joystick-like controls. The sight that greeted him on the viewscreen was incredible, even if it sent knives stabbing into his brain via the orbital sockets. The blackness of space filled his vision, studded with stars in unfamiliar constellations and listing alien ships.

The first ones he spotted looked like the bastard children of TIE-fighters and X-wings, single-pilot sized things drifting across his screen in clumps of three or five. The next one that caught his eye was absolutely massive, an ungainly shape and bright primary paint job demanding his attention. Behind it, a purple-ish metal tube was rolling through space towards a planet with wide swaths of red and brown and the hint of an ice cap visible at the top of his screen. And at the bottom of his screen, the only still thing in his field of vision, there was a massive hulk of a ship made of the same purple metal as the tube tumbling away.

“What was that?” an unfamiliar voice groaned in his ear. It sounded like a boy, probably younger than Matt. Was there a training shuttle nearby that he couldn’t see?

“Sorry.” a higher, younger voice said sheepishly. “The thing I was dumping the shield’s energy in kinda, overloaded and turned into an EMP?”

“How?” another boy’s voice asked.

“Does it matter?” a familiar voice huffed. “We won, they can’t shoot anything now.”

“And we’re all okay.” the first voice sighed. “We are all okay, right?”

A chorus of affirmations answered him, and Shiro relaxed minutely. Whatever was going on, at least nobody had gotten hurt.

“Shiro?” the familiar voice asked, and his head ached even worse. He knew that voice, why couldn’t he put a name to it?

“Guys, Black isn’t moving.” the first voice said as the big yellow ship moved out of Shiro’s view.

“I’ll be right there.” the familiar voice said. “Pidge, get back to Green.”

“Are we gonna have to switch Lions again?” the second boy asked, and something in Shiro’s chest ached. Why did this feel like it should be familiar?

“Shiro?” a red ship swung onto his viewscreen, settling so its cat-like bow was pointed at him. “Shiro, please.” the familiar voice pleaded, the words thick with things unspoken that he knew he should know but he didn’t.

“I’m here.” he said, and he could _feel_ the tension in the call release.

“Thank God.” the familiar voice sighed.

“Yes!” the second boy crowed. “No offense, Keith, but I _seriously_ don’t want you to be leader again.”

“None taken.” Keith scoffed. Keith, he knew- but when-

Shiro winced, headache escalating to a screaming migraine as his memories came crashing back in. Kerberos, the galra, _Voltron_. “Let’s get back to the castle.” he said tightly, shutting his eyes and letting Black swirl through his mind, her cool breeze soothing some of the ache in his skull. If he’d forgotten so much from a single hit, he definitely needed pod time. Four voices, his team’s voices, answered affirmatively as he pulled Black around to face the castle.

“I hope Coran and Allura saw your stunt with the cannon.” Lance said as they fell into formation, leaving the fried ship and fighters behind. “Blue got hit by that energy wave before you guys took it off.”

“I hope they’ve got extra straps like the ones on our bridge seats.” Hunk grumbled. “I’m giving Yellow seatbelts.”

“Soun-”

I don’t care about your opinion.” Hunk snapped. “I’m not getting thrown around your cockpit the next time gravity fails.”

“Hunk, your mic’s still on.” Pidge pointed out.

“Oh, oops.” Hunk mumbled.

“It sounds like a good idea.” Shiro said confidently. “Hunk, if there’s enough seatbelts you should see about installing some in the shuttles.”

“And in the rest of our Lions.” Lance added. “I got tossed around like a ragdoll when Blue went offline.”

“Seatbelts for everyone.” Hunk said firmly. “First thing.”

Shiro smiled as his team started chatting amongst themselves, but after a few seconds his head began to pound again. He grimaced, and hailed the castle to bring Allura and Coran into the conversation now that there was no longer a jamming field. “Princess, are you and Coran alright?” he asked as soon as the connection was established. Thankfully, the rest of the team took this as their cue to shut up.

“We’re fine, Shiro.” Allura said, her face appearing on the side of Shiro’s screen with a relieved grin. “How about you?”

“A little banged up, but we’re okay.” he offered her a weak grin. “Could you have the pods ready for when we get back? Some of us got tossed around a bit, and I want to make sure there’s no internal damage going under the radar.”

“Excellent plan.” Coran grinned, leaning into frame over Allura’s shoulder as the rest of the team complained that they were totally fine. “I’ll expect all five of you in as soon as you’ve landed, and you can debrief once everyone’s cleared.”

“Understood.” Shiro nodded. “Team?”

“Do we have to?” Pidge whined.

“Yes.” Shiro said firmly, earning a collective groan from his team. They’d all go in the pods, and hopefully none of them would look at his screen too closely. The ‘get your had checked’ jokes would be never-ending.


End file.
